At the WorldSkills Competition it won a record 41 gold medals, ten times as many as South Korea, the runner-up. In China it was hard to ignore: the six-day extravaganza, which wrapped up in Shanghai on September 27th, involved some 1,400 young people from 60-odd countries competing before panels of judges amid Olympic-style razzmatazz (and as is now standard at show-off events in China: dancing robots). Once again Team China has crushed its rivals. Never heard of the event?
As it does in producing Olympic stars, China’s government plays a big role. Promising young people are filtered through local, provincial and national contests before entering an elaborate training system. China has designated hundreds of bases—at vocational colleges, universities and companies—where contestants drill their skills under specialist coaches, sometimes including past champions, and receive physical and psychological preparation. One pay-off that China wants is a boost to national pride. State-run media broadcast daily coverage of the competition in Shanghai, the first ever in China. They focused on events linked to China’s industrial strengths (like drone-making), and winners draped in China’s crimson flag. China also uses the competitions to project soft power. The institutions are not just a diplomatic sweetener. They promote technology and standards that China wants to export. At the opening ceremony, Li Qiang, the prime minister, called for more co-operation on skills-building with the global south. China has another goal: getting more of its people into vocational training. Many Chinese look down on vocational colleges, which are often underfunded and badly staffed. Many young Chinese seem happy enough to cheer on their best workers, but do not want to join them in the factory.
“Seeing the dazzling red of China makes my blood dance with excitement!” said a commenter on Weibo, a social-media platform. They help advertise its “Luban workshops” in poorer countries: vocational-training centres named after a mythical Chinese carpenter. Medals at this year’s WorldSkills contest were in the shape of “Luban locks”: wooden puzzles supposedly created by the man himself.
Last year the government warned of a 10m shortfall in skilled workers.
